The invention relates to a method and apparatus for electronically filing documents prepared by a computer.
The customary way of filing the documents prepared by a computer comprises using an optical scanner to scan the document, present as a computer printout, and storing the image thus obtained and converted into electric video signals in an archive which uses magnetic tapes, magnetic or optical storage plates, for example, as recording media. In addition, it is also possible to use an optical character reader to extract text information and bar codes contained in the document. The video signals and the extracted information are then combined to form a data record and fed to the archive memory (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,096, for example).